11 



Dr. Blanpied surveyed humidity in 40 sealed Northeastern CA 

 rooms this past year. He found that in rooms with wet coils 

 the relative humidity averaged 89%, and in rooms with dry 

 coils it averaged 931. This is a substantial difference and 

 indicates that excess weight loss is occurring in the wet coil 

 rooms. He also found that fruit lose less water when the 

 refrigeration coil is operated at a higher temperature, even 

 though the system is operating over longer periods of time. Fan 

 speeds did not affect the humidity level in storages. Humidities 

 were about the same in 36-38 rooms as in 32° rooms, but it 

 should be pointed out that more water will be lost from fruit at 

 36-38 than at 32 , even though the relative humidity is the 

 same. Mr. D.L. Hunter of Food Plant Engineering Co., Yakima, 

 Washington, pointed out that use of ammonia rather than Freon 

 as the refrigerant allows operation of the coil at a higher 

 temperature, and therefore reduces moisture loss from the fruit. 



CA continues to be a storage method used almost exclusively 

 for apples and pears. Much research continues to be done to 

 try to find ways of using it on other commodities, but benefits 

 are limited. Some sweet cherries are CA stored, but only for 

 short times. A small amount of avocados are also CA stored, and 

 studies suggest that CA storage of kiwi fruit may be successful. 

 Peaches and nectarines can be stored successfully in CA, but it 

 requires intermittent warming of the fruit and has not been 

 adopted commercially. 



With vegetables, cabbage is successfully stored in CA. 

 Many other vegetables are shipped in modified atmospheric con- 

 ditions although their long-term storage is not attempted. Some 

 vegetables such as tomatoes can be CA stored for moderate lengths 

 of time but their quality, while better than for air-stored 

 vegetables, is not as good as that of freshly harvested produce. 

 Research with flowers is continuing, but benefits are quite 

 limited in most cases. 



This Conference provided an excellent opportunity to re- 

 examine the best uses of CA storage. We in the Northeast have 

 a rather stable CA situation, but changes are always being con- 

 sidered and it is essential to keep abreast of current develop- 

 ments so that we neither get left behind nor mistakenly apply 

 new techniques without understanding them. 



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